The Scarlet Letter Summary: Plot, Characters and Ending
The scaffold, the A, the doctor, the forest and the last confession
The Scarlet Letter is set in Boston in the 1640s. Hester Prynne has a baby while her husband is missing overseas, and the town punishes her by making her wear a scarlet A, for adultery, on her dress for life. She refuses to name the father, the admired young Arthur Dimmesdale, who hides his guilt while it slowly destroys him. Her husband returns under a false name, Roger Chillingworth, and devotes himself to revenge.
In the end Dimmesdale confesses in public and dies, and Hester, through years of quiet work, turns the letter into a symbol of strength.
How does The Scarlet Letter begin?
A crowd waits outside the Boston prison. Hester Prynne steps out holding her three-month-old daughter, with a scarlet A beautifully embroidered on her dress, and is made to stand on the scaffold in the market square for three hours. The town's leaders, including Dimmesdale, urge her to name the baby's father. She refuses.
In the crowd stands a small, misshapen stranger: her husband, long thought lost at sea. Later he visits her in prison, makes her swear not to reveal who he is, and vows to discover her lover himself. He takes the name Roger Chillingworth.
↑ Back to the topWho's who
| Character | Who they are |
|---|---|
| Hester Prynne | A young woman condemned to wear the A |
| Pearl | Hester's daughter, wild and perceptive |
| Arthur Dimmesdale | Boston's admired young orator and Pearl's father |
| Roger Chillingworth | Hester's husband, a scholar and physician in disguise |
| Governor Bellingham | The colony's governor |
| Mistress Hibbins | The governor's sister, rumoured to be a witch |
How does Hester live?
Hester settles in a lonely cottage at the edge of town and supports herself with superb needlework, which even the people who shun her buy. Pearl grows into a bright, strange, untamed child who seems to understand far more than she should and is fascinated by the A. When the governor considers taking Pearl away, Dimmesdale speaks so movingly for Hester that she is allowed to keep her.
↑ Back to the topWhat does Chillingworth do?
Chillingworth becomes the town's physician and attaches himself to Dimmesdale, whose health is failing. The two even share a house. Suspecting the truth, Chillingworth probes and torments the younger man for years, and one day, while Dimmesdale sleeps, he looks under his shirt and sees something on his chest that fills him with savage triumph. Dimmesdale, meanwhile, punishes himself in private and one night stands on the scaffold in the dark, where Hester and Pearl join him.
↑ Back to the topWhat happens in the forest?
Seven years after the opening, Hester meets Dimmesdale in the forest, tells him who Chillingworth really is, and urges him to escape with her to Europe. For a moment she takes off the A and lets down her hair, and the sun breaks through. Pearl refuses to come near until her mother puts the letter back on. They arrange to sail in a few days, but Hester later learns that Chillingworth has booked a place on the same ship.
↑ Back to the topHow does The Scarlet Letter end?
On Election Day Dimmesdale gives the finest speech of his life. Afterwards he climbs the scaffold with Hester and Pearl, confesses before the whole town, and seems to reveal a mark on his chest before he dies in Hester's arms. Pearl kisses him, and her wildness seems to soften at last.
Chillingworth, his purpose gone, dies within a year and leaves his fortune to Pearl, who goes abroad, marries well and lives happily. Years later Hester returns to Boston, wears the A of her own free will, and becomes a counsellor to troubled women. She is buried beside Dimmesdale under a single stone marked with the letter.
↑ Back to the topMore about The Scarlet Letter
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